Artificial marble is widely used as a building material. Artificial marble is typically classified as acrylic artificial marble or unsaturated polyester artificial marble. Acrylic artificial marble is widely used because of its excellent appearance, superior texture and good weatherability, as compared to unsaturated polyester artificial marble. For example, acrylic artificial marble is used as a material for kitchen, bath and other countertops, sinks, dressing tables, bathtubs, wall materials, interior articles, and the like.
Conventionally manufacturers of artificial marbles focus on the production of a natural-stone-like texture. Accordingly, many conventional marbles are only available with stone-like patterns. Further, many conventional artificial marbles are not made with eco-friendly material.
In general, ocher or loess has excellent detoxificant and antibacterial effects. Accordingly ocher or loess is widely used in food, cosmetic materials, cloth, and the like, and many popular products include loess.
Further, ocher or loess can control temperature and humidity. Accordingly, it can also act as an insulator and can provide coolness in the summer and warmth in the winter. It has also been used as a traditional building material in Korea.
Artificial marble including loess could be suitable for use in interior building materials or various interior articles. However, it can be difficult to produce such materials or articles with both good mechanical strength and elegant ocher texture because of the low compatibility of loess or ocher and acrylic matrix resins and the resultant poor processability.
Korean Patent No. 272421 is directed to a method of preparing artificial marble comprising preparing a loess molding layer consisting of a mixture of loess and unsaturated polyester resin, laminating a zeolite surface layer consisting of a mixture of zeolite and unsaturated polyester resin onto the molding layer, and curing the laminated layers. However, this method has poor processability and the resulting artificial marble has poor mechanical strength due to the high content of loess.